Pinyin Syllable
Chinese characters pronounced dong
Learn common Chinese characters pronounced dong, including 动 dòng, 东 dōng, 洞 dòng, 懂 dǒng, 冬 dōng. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…
How to Pronounce This Syllable
To say dong, lead with the initial d, then flow without a break into the final ong, holding the tone across the whole syllable.
Initial d
Start the syllable on the initial d, then run straight into the final ong — keep them joined instead of sounding out separate English letters.
Final ong
ong sounds close to “ung”, not English “ong”.
Study Tip
Start with the most common characters (动 dòng, 东 dōng, 洞 dòng, 懂 dǒng, 冬 dōng) and lock in their tones. 7 common characters share the sound dong, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.
Learn by Tone
dong turns up here with 3 different tones; a change of tone usually means a different character, so the groups below are split by tone.
1st tone
Taking the 1st tone here: 东, 冬 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
3rd tone
Taking the 3rd tone here: 懂, 董 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
4th tone
Taking the 4th tone here: 动, 洞, 冻 (3 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
Common Words With This Sound
Seeing dong inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.
Characters
7 common characters in this group.